


Beware of Judging

by xantissa



Series: Carnival of Rust [5]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, Fix-It, Gen, Khan is very good at mindfuckery, and has anger management problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-15
Updated: 2013-06-15
Packaged: 2017-12-15 01:35:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/843780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xantissa/pseuds/xantissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>McCoy stumbles upon the recently freed Khan. The doctor’s temper flares. Not a wise decision.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beware of Judging

**Author's Note:**

> The scenes are not objective, they are told from an unreliable narrator point of view since no one there actually know the full story of Khan, only the bits and pieces that Marcus let slip or Khan told in the brief time he was in the brig.

Leonard McCoy was going to get drunk, he was going to get so damn drunk he would forget ever hearing the words _“I decided to help Khan find his crew”_ closely followed by _“Severe, untreatable, permanent side effects of using Khan’s blood to heal me”._

 

Oh, there were many, many ~~more~~ things Leonard wished he hadn’t heard during that goddamned awful meeting that took place the day before but those were the worst. The first thing he had done after Jim finished the meeting was to drag him to the medbay and test the shit out of him. Throughout the tests Jim remained calm, almost resigned and apologetic. It was ridiculous of course, if it was anyone’s fault it was McCoy’s for not finding the possible risks sooner and eliminating them.

 

The calmer, more logical part of the doctor’s mind knew that Jim was right in keeping his crew away from that harebrained scheme of his. If he failed, if he miscalculated one single thing, not only would he end up accused of treason, he could pull his whole crew down. It didn’t mean Leonard in any way agreed with him but he at least understood his reasoning. Nor did it help when. When nothing was found to be physically wrong with Jim. His results were all normal if not better than before, his cells were regenerating at a faster pace than an average human but nothing too noticeable. His DNA seemed to be untouched and his nervous system looked the same it did during the last physical.

 

There was nothing, absolutely nothing wrong. He had been ready to suggest it was some kind of psychological manipulation, a hypnosis... something purely in the mind until Mr. Spock pulled out a security feed from a few days previous showing one of Jim’s so called _incidents._

 

After that even Bones had to agree that in Jim’s previous physical state, he could not have simply ripped a shelf off the wall. Bones also really didn’t like the way the young Captain looked. The expression on his face was particularly distressing, the animal-like rage and utter lack of sanity buried, but present sent shivers down McCoy’s back.

 

This was what he’d done to his friend. In saving his life, he’d sentenced him to losing his mind or becoming physically dependent on a fucking mass murderer for at least a few years. This was his fault. His. In his desperate need to save Jim he’d skipped more than a few steps, willfully blinded himself to the fact that if Khan’s blood was such a great and easy source of healing then Admiral Marcus would have used it somehow. It never occurred to him to stop and think, just why didn’t he? Was he really such a good doctor, better than a whole section dedicated to the creation of advanced technologies?

 

How arrogant, how stupid could he get?

 

Tired and wrecked, McCoy rubbed his face. He was going to shut himself in his quarters and drink until he passed out. Then he was going to start working on a cure.

 

First though, he needed to feed the poor Tribble that was stuck alone in the medbay. Since it procreated at such a high rate it could only be kept in strictly controlled environment and was absolutely forbidden on Earth.

 

As he opened the door to his lab the first thing he noticed was the glaring hole in the cage and the ball of fluff squeezing between his legs, running off down the corridor with speed that was really surprising for something so small.

 

“Oh for crying out loud.” He grumbled and then turned on his heel, following the damn creature. He should have got rid of it a long time ago!

 

Soon he realized that not only was the thing surprisingly fast, it also looked like it knew exactly where it was going. Bones had to first jog and then outright run after the creature that skittered over the floor like mad, turning corners so fast the doctor had no hope of actually catching up to it.

 

Another corner and Bones was vaguely aware that he was now on deck six, section Beta. Something niggled in his brain that this meant something but he was too focused on cursing the fluff ball to think about it much.

 

The realization came just as he rounded another corner and stopped short at the sight in front of him.

 

Khan, dressed in fairly indistinctive black slacks and black shirt that despite being standard issue, made him look big and intimidating.

 

That was what bothered him about the place where the Tribble was running to. It was the place where Kirk had placed Khan for the time being, locking him in quarters originally designed for foreign dignitaries.

 

Bones looked down at the fluffy ball of fuzz that was happily twitching on the floor, purring up a storm under the augmented human’s hands. That was odd too, somehow seeing the fierce man crouching down to pet the Tribble didn’t really fit with what McCoy knew about him.

 

There was a split second before Khan registered his presence that Bones saw his face relaxed, free of anger, with a small smile as he touched the fuzzy creature. As soon as he became aware of the audience his face was wiped off any emotion, closed off and wary.

 

He straightened up, not very subtly reminding the doctor of how physically powerful he could be.

 

“You...” Bones bit off whatever he wanted to say, remembering in time that angering the augment with hate-on for Starfleet wasn’t the most intelligent course of action.

 

Khan lifted an eyebrow.

 

“Me.” He agreed easily, his voice low but containing that infuriating, arrogant note of amusement.

 

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you confined to your quarters?” The doctor jumped in, hoping a good attack would be his defense.

 

“Imagine my surprise when the main computer didn’t uphold the command.” Khan drawled slowly.

 

So he’d hacked the main computer. Without tools. From inside his quarters. Not surprising as Jim could and likely had performed a similar maneuver himself.

 

“You have no right to be here, walking free. Not after everything you did, all those people you murdered. Not after what you did to Jim!” McCoy spat out, his anger momentarily outweighing the fear.

 

The tall man tilted his head, his pale eyes going from slightly wary to smoldering with anger in a flash. He didn’t move ~~much~~ but the doctor could feel the aura of menace and sheer hatred just pouring off of the man. It felt as if the temperature had fallen least ten degrees around them.

 

“Right?” Khan forced the word slowly through his teeth, his voice reaching those stunningly low registers McCoy noticed before. “I have no right? And what right did your Starfleet have to keep my family hostage, to blackmail me into obedience, to enslave me? What right did you have, doctor, to use my blood to experiment on a non-sentient animal?” The man took a step towards McCoy, fists slowly clenching and unclenching at his side. The tendons on his neck stood out in sharp relief as he continued speaking, his voice lowering even more. “What right did you have to use my blood to experiment on a dying human? Without my consent?”

 

Bones realized he was backing up only when his back hit the steel wall behind him.

 

“Do not speak to me about _rights_ or _consent_ you lowly creature. Don’t you dare throw words like _innocents_ at me.” The infuriated man reached out a hand and touched the Starfleet insignia on McCoy’s chest with a single finger. “Your hands have been filthy with death and blood so much longer than mine, you have no right to accuse me of anything.”

 

The man was terrifying in his control. It was visible how much anger and hate there was in him but it was the fact that he could keep such a tight leash on those emotions that staggered Leonard.

 

“Beware of judging others, Doctor, for you might find yourself judged in turn.” Khan all but murmured at McCoy, eyes burning with the unholy light of emotion but body rigidly controlled.

 

After a long second of staring the doctor down, Khan straightened up again, taking a step back.

 

“You have a habit of believing yourself an expert on thing you have no idea of, _doctor_.” There was a certain way he said the word _doctor_. Like it was the filthiest, most abhorrent thing he’d ever had to force out his throat. Even as inured as McCoy was to different people and personalities, some of them extremely abrasive, he found himself shaken in the face of the pure loathing that emanated from the man.

 

“I trust you have learned your lesson by now with using my blood, doctor. I would so hate to be forced to... educate you.” With those last words Khan turned around and left, not concerned with showing Leonard his back.

 

The still shaken doctor stayed in place, shocked by the intensity of this encounter, and watched silently as the Tribble scrambled to follow the augmented human like a faithful puppy.

 

The End

12-06-2013


End file.
